Movie Theater Found Not Liable in Mass Shooting

Taylor | Anderson defended Cinemark Holdings, Inc. in litigation arising from the July 20, 2012 fatal shooting rampage by James Holmes at a late-night movie screening. The shooting occurred at Cinemark’s Century 16 multiplex in Aurora, Colorado.

Just after midnight on July 20, 2012, James Holmes, a heavily armed, homicidal, paranoid psychotic, surreptitiously entered an auditorium exit door of a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and waged a violent assault on its patrons, killing 12 and injuring 70, including paralysis and other significant and debilitating injuries to some patrons. Shortly thereafter, a series of lawsuits were filed in Arapahoe County District Court. The complaints in those lawsuits alleged that the theater and its employees were responsible for the deaths and injuries because of inadequate security, including inadequate procedures for auditorium checks and for the lack of exit door alarms, armed security officers, and exterior closed-circuit television cameras. These cases were consolidated for a three-week trial on liability only, which began on May 9, 2016.

At trial, the defense team argued that the shooting was unforeseeable and unpreventable, and that James Holmes was solely responsible for the plaintiffs’ injuries. Additionally, the defense team provided evidence that James Holmes’ treating psychiatrists negligently failed to place him on an involuntary 72-hour psychiatric hold despite knowing that he was mentally ill and homicidal. The defense contended that if anyone could have foreseen and prevented his actions, it was his psychiatrists, not the theater.

On May 19, 2016, after deliberating for approximately three hours, a jury of six returned a complete defense verdict in favor of Cinemark.

The case is Soudani, et al. v. Cinemark USA, et. al. The trial was held in Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colorado.

The Taylor | Anderson defense team was comprised of lawyers Kevin Taylor, Kyle Seedorf, John Roche, and Patrick Withers, and paralegal Tracy Williams, all of the firm’s Denver office.

Cinemark Holdings, Inc. is a motion picture exhibition company with 500+ theatres and 5,000+ screens in the United States and Latin America.